Rampage 2008 Schedule Preview

Randy Snow
Thursday November 8, 2007

The 2008 schedule for the Grand Rapids Rampage, as well as the rest of the Arena Football League, was released on November 1. The home schedule features one Monday night game, three Friday night games, one Saturday night game and three Sunday afternoon games. Three of the four Rampage games in March are home games at the Van Andel Arena. 

After a bye in the first week of the league schedule, the Rampage kick off the season on Monday night, March 10 with a home game against the defending ArenaBowl Champion San Jose SaberCats. Just four days later, on Friday night, March 14, Grand Rapids hosts their division rival, the Chicago Rush. After a trip to Kansas City to take on the Brigade, the Rampage return home to host the Los Angeles Avengers, who recently signed former Rampage standout Timon Marshall. 

The month of April sees the Orland Predators travel to Grand Rapids for the first time since 2002. The other home game in April is against the Kansas City Brigade.

The lone home game in the month of May is on Friday night, May 16 against perennial AFL powerhouse, the Tampa Bay Storm. On Saturday, May 24, the Rampage travel west to take on the Arizona Rattlers, who have guaranteed that they will make the playoffs this season. If they do not qualify for the playoffs, the Rattlers will refund all of their season ticket holders for the cost of their tickets! 

The home portion of the schedule comes to an end with back-to-back games against the Utah Blaze on Sunday, June 1 and on Saturday night, June 7 against the Colorado Crush. The final two weeks of the regular season have the Rampage on the road at Columbus and New Orleans.  

With only 17 teams in the AFL this season, (down from 19 last season) there are only three teams in the league that the Rampage do not face during the regular season, the Georgia Force, the Philadelphia Soul and the new team in Cleveland, formerly the Las Vegas Gladiators. 

New Rampage head coach Steve Thonn had this to say about the schedule, “Whenever you open the season with the defending ArenaBowl champs (San Jose), and then have the semi-finalists the next game (Chicago), you’ve got a tough draw.  But it also is a great opportunity to find out where we are at, right out of the gate.”